DA case: Jagan's wife attacks CBI, accuses it of working at Congress's behest

New Delhi: With Jaganmohan Reddy completing a year in jail after his arrest in a disproportionate assets case, his wife Bharathi on Monday attacked CBI, alleging it was controlled by partisan interests and had delayed probe to keep him in prison.

Bharathi shot off a letter to CBI chief Ranjit Sinha alleging the investigation is being conducted in a "possibly politically motivated" manner and said that she had reasons to believe that the "Congress run CBI intends to keep my husband in custody until the General Elections".

Targeting Congress and TDP, Bharathi said that there were interests which wanted to keep her husband behind bars as there was a possibility that he could out do other parties in the upcoming 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

Bharathi shot off a letter to CBI chief Ranjit Sinha alleging the investigation is being conducted in a "possibly politically motivated" manner.

"If you look at the past by-elections, Jaganmohan Reddy swept the polls and from here he might sweep 2014 which is why Congress and TDP have done it," Bharathi told PTI over the phone.

She said the methods employed by the agency in the investigation were motivated, biased and controlled by partisan interests and not on the merits of the case itself.

"When the Supreme Court ordered the CBI to complete investigations within four months, your lawyers in blatant disregard to the just delivered Supreme Court order addressed the media minutes after the order was passed indicating that the time limit is not binding on CBI and that they will find ground for seeking time extension," she said in the letter.

Bharathi added that the investigations had been on for the last 22 months and the in the status report before the SC, the CBI had asked for three months in October 2012 to complete the investigations. She said that eight months after October 2012, May 2013, the CBI has again said that they need another four months for investigations.

In the letter, she also questioned the timing of the arrest of her husband saying it had been carried out when he was in the midst of campaigning for a crucial election.

"The investigation is clearly being conducted in a motivated manner- possibly politically motivated. The delay in investigation is only to ensure my husband remains in jail. I also have reasons to believe that the Congress run CBI intends to keep my husband in custody until the General Elections, to gain political mileage for its masters," she said.

In the letter, Bharathi also alleged that selective information had also been leaked in order to damage the reputation of her husband. Explaining her decision to address her grievance to CBI which she herself accuses of bias, Bharathi said that she had written the letter as she wanted to bring her version on record.

"I don't know whether they would listen but I intend to put it on record. CBI doesn't belong to the Congress but to the country. I want to know on what ground they have sought this four-month extension. I believe the investigation had completed last October and the extensions are being sought just to prolong my husband's stay," Bharathi she said.

"The CBI is answerable to the country, it can't go unaccounted. By writing this letter, I am building my case, I have a right to ask them if I have a doubt," she said.

Bharathi also claimed that the cases had nothing to do with her husband who was neither in government nor in Hyderabad in the period they pertain to.

She alleged that once a strain developed between Jagan and the Congress and he decided to leave the party, they received IT notices, assessments of previous years were dug up and taxes slapped.

She claimed that being law abiding citizens they had cooperated with the investigators but Jagan Reddy had been put in prison for an year without him being convicted.